Madras Atomic Power Station completes 25 years Wednesday

Mumbai, July 22 (IANS) The country’s first indigenously built nuclear power reactor Madras Atomic Power Station Unit-1 (MAPS-1), located at Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu and set up at a cost of Rs.2.4 billion ($57 million), will complete 25 years Wednesday. Synchronised to the grid in the presence of late prime minister Indira Gandhi July 23, 1983, MAPS comprises two units of 220 MW each of pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWR), according to a statement released by Nuclear Power Corp of India Ltd (NPCIL) here Tuesday.

MAPS has supplied more than 45,000 million units (MUs) of electricity at a current tariff of Rs.1.89 per unit and earned a profit of Rs.11.2 billion so far.

Tamil Nadu has a share of 330 MW out of the station capacity of 440 MW in addition to the share of other beneficiary states in the southern electricity region.

Pioneering an era of progress and indigenisation of the Indian nuclear industry, the successful completion of project engineering, design, construction, commissioning and operation of MAPS-1 laid a strong foundation for the first stage of the Indian nuclear power programme.

The experience gained at MAPS paved the way for India’s standardised 220 MW PHWRs. It resulted in the design being upgraded to 540 MW with two such units now under operation at Tarapur, near Mumbai.

This design has been further up-rated to 700 MW and eight PHWR units of 700 MW are planned in the 11th Five Year Plan, NPCIL said.

NPCIL added that in the recent past, MAPS-1 and MAPS-2 have undergone major renovation and modernisation and, safety upgradation and en-mass coolant channels replacements.

The statement added that all NPCIL stations, including MAPS, have performed “excellently” in terms of safety, achieving over 280 reactor-years of safe and accident-free operations.

The releases to the environment have been a small fraction of the limits prescribed by the regulatory board and all NPCIL operations stations have secured ISO-14001 certification (Environment Management System).

Presently NPCIL has 17 nuclear power units in India with a total installed capacity of 4120 MW in operation and six additional units with a total capacity of 3160 MW under construction.